My GFT Report
During the early part of the week, the weather forecast did not look too promising – the general outlook for Thursday was wet and windy. With my recent luck with the weather, it was bound to be canned. On Tuesday afternoon, I phoned the school, and they suggested that the next day, Wednesday (29th) looked promising, and did I want to pull it forward if the examiner was available. The pretty straightforward answer to that was “yes”
The nerves were really jangling now – a call came to say the examiner was free, and we would start at 10.30. I had spent the previous few days going over and over things in my mind, HASELL and FREDA checks, when to do them and in the right order. The PFL procedure, going through it in my mind step by step etc. “Relax, and enjoy it” came advice from the forums - Oh yeah? This is something I’ve been working on for 12 months now, and an awful lot rides on this one final examination, and I’m supposed to relax and enjoy it - GET REAL PLEASE!
I decided to stop revising at 18.00 on the Tuesday evening, and try to forget it. I went to bed fairly early and read a non aviation book before lights out. I actually went to sleep quickly, and slept well, but awoke pretty early the next morning. My stomach was churning!! I made a cup of tea, watched teletext, and generally tried to forget it was D Day! I packed all my things, ensured I had everything and left at 08.00, arriving at the school one hour later.
The instructors were busy refuelling the planes, and one by one wished me luck. The phone rang, it was my examiner saying he would not be able to arrive until 10.00am but gave me the route to plot and his weight. Basically, I was to zone out to the South to Markfield VRP, then head for a disused airfield in Bedfordshire, before turning west for another disused field in Oxfordshire, and back to EMA. Having committed the route to paper, I marked on all the Frequency change points, FREDA points (as reminders) and put the 3000’ wind direction/speed on the chart (260 degrees at 20kts), then I completed the flight plan. I carefully noted down all the frequencies I might need, and those either side of the route in case of (!) any diversion.
I also noted the Cranfield and Daventry VOR frequencies. I checked the Notams, Royal Flights, got the TAFs and METARs. I then checked the TAS (103 knots), distances, times en route, fuel requirements, weight and balance calculations, and the myriad of other things you have to do pre flight - I was busy, and feeling a bit more relaxed.
10.00am arrived very quickly, but I had everything covered except pre flighting the plane. I went outside to check out Oscar November, only to discover, that in the last half an hour, the skies had darkened, there was now low cloud, and it was raining! I DON’T BELIEVE IT!! I completed the pre flight checks, set up the necessary radio frequencies for the first part of the flight, and punched in the planned VOR frequencies. I returned to the office, met my examiner (who’s day job is flying wide bodied Airbus A300’s, lucky so and so!) and suggested that if I was going solo VFR, I would consider cancelling the flight due to the weather. Thankfully, whilst acknowledging my caution, he indicated it would be fine!
I went out to the plane and got settled in, shortly followed by the most important person in my life at that precise moment! I explained that I would treat him as if he was my neighbour, who has never been in a small plane before “That’s fine” he said “Has she got big tits?” I roared with nervous laughter. I’m going to like this chap – he cracked another couple of jokes about Noddy and Big Ears, and it was obvious he was determined to lower any stress level I may be experiencing.
I gave him a full briefing. Do not touch anything, tell me if you do, feet off the pedals, the location of the emergency items (extinguisher and first aid box), safety belt and door operation and asked him to shout if he saw another aircraft in the sky, no matter whether he thought I’d already seen it. I fired up the motor, collected the ATIS (information PAPA, runway 27, QNH 1005, winds 220 at 7, Ground closed), did a full instrument check, T’s and P’s etc, making sure I said everything out loud so he knew what I was doing. I taxied forward to initial hold at Mike Alpha and called the Tower. “Taxi to and hold at Sierra 1 for runway 27, QNH 1005” came the reply. I read it all back and taxied out to S1, checking the compass and HI for correct movement, and the turn coordinator both on left and right turns.
I ensured the compass and HI were properly aligned, arrived at the hold and carried out power checks etc. All was well, called ready for departure, and was told to hold position and line up after the landing 737. Mr Ryanair went passed and I entered 27 and lined up ready to go. I checked everything again, a quick burst of carb heat to be sure, all lights on, everything ready.
“Golf Oscar November, you are cleared for a Sierra Echo departure to the South, not above 2000 VFR” I acknowledged, and heard in return “read back is correct, you are cleared for take off” Oh well, here we go, opened up to full power, speaking out loud “full power, T & P’s OK, speed increasing”
Sixty knots, rotate, and up, up and away! Passing 300’ AGL, I heard “Oh dear, we’ve suffered engine failure!” as he closed the throttle. OK, we have an EFATO eh? Pitch down, full flaps, touch checks only but call them out loud – no problem there’s plenty of runway left to get back down. “OK Mike, climb away” I called the tower to report climbing again and we cleared the boundary. 500’ AGL arrived and I started a gentle 15 degree climbing left turn to a heading of 150 degrees for the correct zone exit. 1000’ AGL, so fuel pump off, transponder on 7000 Mode Charlie. Approaching Shepshed East I called “Golf Oscar November, Zoning out Sierra Echo” Tower acknowledged and passed me over to Approach, who gave me a FIS. The weather was not nice however, low cloud, raining and not much visibility, probably no more than 7000 metres. This was going to be a tough test.
“I think with the cloud level being about 2000’, we had better avoid Leicester City (original route at 3000’ for land clear), so track around the North of the City, and pick up your original route overhead Leicester Airport” Great!! The visibility is pretty poor and I’m now taken off my route and relative comfort zone, but I find my way, and a few minutes later, Leicester Airport came up on the nose. “You pick up your heading and I’ll give Leicester a call” What a nice man my examiner is! I carry out a FREDA check, align compass/HI, all OK.
I calculated a new ETA for the first waypoint, having had 10 miles chopped off the original route, and concentrated hard to stay on track. I changed to Cottesmore for a FIS and they were very obliging, warning of a Harrier that almost immediately flew straight over us - awesome beast that was, pleased we’re not in a dog fight with that!!
Various towns came up on the dot - there’s the A14 right where it should be, a couple of lakes - yep we were smack on it. I couldn’t see far ahead though, and I reckoned the airfield I’m looking for would appear in about three minutes. There it was, bang on the nose - just to be sure I looked for and established a couple of identifying features, and confirmed it to the boss. He’s happy.
I now turned West onto 260 for the next waypoint, some 50 miles distant, stopwatch reset, ETA calculated (16 past the hour) and off we went. The cloud level was still pretty low at 2500’ish, so we were bimbling along at 2000’ on the QNH. I spotted the disused and massive Bedford aerodrome, and the Santa Pod raceway, confirming we were on the correct heading. “OK Mike, do you know where we are?” “Yes, overhead Billing Aquadrome, just South of Northampton” I said confidently. “OK, I want you to divert to Leicester Airfield, do what’s necessary to get us there”
This is never easy, but I grabbed the chart, and drew as steady a line as I could, and calculated 340 degrees, less a bit for the 260 winds, let’s say 330. Distance, according to the thumb was 25 miles, ground speed, near enough 95 kts and about 17 minutes. I calculated the ETA and set off.
After a few minutes, he said “that’s fine, now I want you to track the 250 radial to Daventry VOR”. There’s no rest for the wicked here is there? Right, setting 250 on the clock, I turned a little to intercept the beam at a lesser angle, and wait for the needle to swing. Eventually it started to move into the centre, and once aligned, I set a heading of 250 to track to it. With the wind up here at 260, there’s no need for any substantial heading correction, so I settled in for a slightly quieter time. NO CHANCE!!
“That’s fine Mike, and that’s the navigation bit over with, so now we need to tackle the upper level stuff” The problem was the cloud base, which was still only about 2000’ or so. We headed back north towards Leicester. There was nothing else for it but to climb through the murk, to find clearer conditions. “OK, up you go” he said. Full power and I climbed into the cloud. Now, I’ve done loads of instrument stuff at home on the Microsoft simulator, but to do it for real was something else! Concentrating really hard on the Attitude Indicator, I remembered to rely on the instrument and not my senses. Actually, that home stuff really helped, because I held it nice and steady for what seemed ages, turning as instructed firstly 90 degrees to the left (gentle turn) then to the right, and levelling off at 4000’, still in cloud. “Hmmm, this isn’t much good, OK let’s go higher”. So, up I went again, and as 4500’ passed, we popped out into clear air. There was still cloud above, but we could see off to the East was a nice clear patch with the ground in view, so we headed off in that direction.
We were now receiving FIS from Cottesmore once again, and I was told “OK, whilst you are doing the next exercises, I will handle the navigation and the radio” We went into the various upper air exercises, firstly the steep turn - no problem. Then stalling in clean configuration (I remembered to do the HASELL check!), then with two stages of flap, and in a slow turn as if turning onto final - all OK. Boy I was now actually enjoying it, and there was some good banter inside the plane, but I was getting knackered, AND I needed a pee!!
That section over, we went back down through the cloud (it was great fun doing this IMC stuff, I’ll have to get that under my belt sometime) and down to 2000’. Finding a gap in the rain showers put me onto a heading of 260 degrees (smack into the wind) and the PFL. Again, that went better than expected, a kindly farmer had lit a bonfire to confirm the wind, and there was a perfect field straight ahead! I trimmed for 70 knots best glide speed (drifted a little high to 80 knots a couple of times) and went through the engine restart procedure, called a Mayday, “put” 7700 in the transponder, and at the right time shoved in first stage of flap. We were pretty low by now, and he finally called “OK climb” Phew, that went OK I think, we’ll see!!
We now headed back to East Midlands airport, and I had to demonstrate some slow flying (70 knots clean) on the way. On arrival at East Midlands, he wanted me to firstly carry out a standard rejoin and normal landing (or touch and go). I was told to ask for three or four circuits which were approved. Descending on approach to left base for runway 27 at 1500’, we were suddenly confronted by a very large hawk that flew rather too close to our port wing – I wouldn’t have wanted to hit it, that’s for sure! Cleared to final number two behind another school plane, I concentrated on maintaining a consistent approach speed – the landing? Well it was OK but could have done with a touch more right rudder to offset the light crosswind, so there was a bit of a lurch, not bad, but not good!! I apologised to let him know that it was not my best… “No problem” was the reply.
There followed three more circuits, a flapless landing, a short field landing and, with the towers’ permission a stop and go. I was now desperate for a pee after two and a half hours in the air, but luckily we had finished, so I landed for the last time. I taxied back to the school, and whilst I tidied everything up, he went back inside, even taking my gear with him - told you he was a nice man! Another instructor taxied past and put his thumbs up in a questioning manner. I shrugged my shoulders, nothing had been said.
I went inside and after a much needed comfort break, we retired to a briefing room. Still no answer to my silent question - in my head I was screaming at him “HAVE I PASSED?” After some time filling in forms, he said “Oh sorry, forgot to say, you’ve passed” That was the sweetest sound I have heard for a long time. “You did very well” he said “all in all, a good GFT”. I could have kissed him, but instead offered him a Mars bar from my flight bag, and bought him a coffee.
So that’s it, I’m a pilot! Fantastic!! After fourteen months, 70 hours total and seven exams I’m finally there at the ripe old age of 62. Has it been worth it? Most definitely yes - I’ve had a couple of wobbles along the way, once after a poor days flying (though I was unknowingly sickening for flu at the time), and once after failing the Met exam (my favourite subject), which I passed two days later with 100%
Now what? As I write this, I’m feeling strangely under whelmed by my achievement - almost an anti-climax, strange. I’ve built up good friends at the school, who have been tremendous, especially my long suffering instructor Morris. I intend to hire my mistress out at least twice a month this Summer, and learn to use my shiny new Garmin 296 moving map GPS at the same time, so I’ll be keeping in touch with them all. All the paperwork has now gone off to the CAA, and I eagerly await my lovely new licence.
Finally, my thanks to my wife Marie for her Xmas present that kicked it all off, and her unstinting encouragement over the past year. What a shame she suffers from terrible claustrophobia and will be unable to fly with me…...………well, that’s her excuse and she’s sticking to it!!